ErisofDiscord: Written by J.R.R. Tolkien's friend, C.S. Lewis. Although their styles of writing are very different, I have found both of them to be highly enjoyable and the quality of both of the authors books are unmatched.

PitcherBooks: While I enjoyed The Hobbit a bit more than the Elven, I like The Elven much more than the LOTR. I have yet to read the sequels but Elven had the feel of a fantasy classic to it. Time will tell...
Pros: Great world-building and characters, mostly action, adventure and magic with only the last tenth or so devoted to the obligatory war. Since I'm not big on wars this was a major plus.
Con: The Hobbit was shorter, more endearing and faster moving. Elven is a lengthy tome but the characters and adventures held my interest even so.… (more)

It is truly an accomplishment to finish this book. It is so immense and amazing. It is not the kind of accomplishment where a burden is lifted when you are done, it is a true pleasure to read. This book is full of adversity and adventure. I think it resembles life. Life is the adventure that the dwarfs go on and all the challenges they face are adversity that every person has to endure in life. The hobbit, Bilbo Baggins is a savoir he his an unexpected savior. There are these things in life. Often when things are going wrong in life, the simplest thing can bring joy. Tolkien wonderfully crafted this prequel to the lord of the rings series. He laces hints throughout the story to the lord of the rings. He also answers questions that readers speculated over for years, like how Bilbo Baggins got the ring. Tolkien doesn't allow for each chapter to be a stand-alone adventure, the chapters build off of prior knowledge presented in the previous chapters and work to form a cohesive quest adventure. It is almost as your reading of the book is a simultaneous adventure with the characters as they reach there objective in the end the reader finishes the book.

I really enjoyed this book, it was not at all what I expected it to be.This book is all about adventures and things going wrong, It took me a long time to finish it. It was still a good book and I will read the rest of this series. ( )

I once had a picture book of the Hobbit with a little record that I could put on my Holly Hobbie record player. I think I liked that version better, to be honest. Still decent lazy-day-didn't-get-enough sleep reading. ( )

This is one of the most freshly original and delightfully imaginative books for children that have appeared in many a long day. . . . a glorious account of a magnificent adventure, filled with suspense and seasoned with a quiet humor that is irresistible.

For it must be understood that this is a children’s book only in the sense that the first of many readings can be undertaken in the nursery. Alice is read gravely by children and with laughter by grown ups; The Hobbit, on the other hand, will be funnier to its youngest readers, and only years later, at a tenth or a twentieth reading, will they begin to realise what deft scholarship and profound reflection have gone to make everything in it so ripe, so friendly, and in its own way so true. Prediction is dangerous: but The Hobbit may well prove a classic.

In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbit-hole, and that means comfort.

It does not do to leave a live dragon out of your calculations, if you live near him. Dragons may not have much real use for all their wealth, but they know it to an ounce as a rule, especially after long possession; and Smaug was no exception.

There is more in you of good than you know, child of the kindly West. Some courage and some wisdom, blended in measure. If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world. But sad or merry, I must leave it now. Farewell!

"And why not? Surely you don't disbelieve the prophecies just because you helped them come about. You don't really suppose do you that all your adventures and escapes were managed by mere luck? Just for your sole benefit? You're a very fine person, Mr. Baggins, and I'm quite fond of you. But you are really just a little fellow, in a wide world after all."

J.R.R. Tolkien's complete work The Lord of the Rings consists of six Books, normally bound in three Volumes, as follows:

Volume I: The Fellowship of the Ring, consisting of Book 1, "The Ring Sets Out" and Book 2, "The Ring Goes South";Volume II: The Two Towers, consisting of Book 3, "The Treason of Isengard," and Book 4, "The Ring Goes East"; andVolume III: The Return of the King, consisting of Book 5, "The War of the Ring," and Book 6, "The End of the Third Age," with Appendices.

This LT Work consists solely of The Hobbit; or, There and Back Again, a precursor to The Lord of the Rings; please do not combine it with that complete work, or with any part(s) thereof, each of which have LT Works pages of their own. Thank you.

This is an edition of the full text of J. R. R. Tolkien's The Hobbit, illustrated by Alan Lee: ISBN 10 0007611625; ISBN13: 9780007611621. It can and should be combined with the original work.

[R.L. 6.6] The story of hobbit Bilbo Baggins as he travels across middle earth with a group of dwarfs and a wizard. He faces trolls and dragons. Meets elves and shape shifters. And hopes to acquire great treasure as his adventure continues.

Haiku summary

So I'm a thief now.What I really should have took?Comfortable shoes.

The dwarves had a plan.They didn't say anythingabout hungry trolls.

(Carnophile)

Nasty Bagginsesstole the Precious, yess, and wehates them forever!(ed.pendragon)

A ring in a cave?I’ll take it. I doubt that theowner will miss it.

(Carnophile)

Wizard at the door?Twelve dwarves too? You'll be tellingme a dragon's next!(ed.pendragon)

"In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbit-hole, and that means comfort."

The hobbit-hole in question belongs to one Bilbo Baggins, an upstanding member of a "little people, about half our height, and smaller than the bearded dwarves." He is, like most of his kind, well off, well fed, and best pleased when sitting by his own fire with a pipe, a glass of good beer, and a meal to look forward to. Certainly this particular hobbit is the last person one would expect to see set off on a hazardous journey; indeed, when Gandalf the Grey stops by one morning, "looking for someone to share in an adventure," Baggins fervently wishes the wizard elsewhere. No such luck, however; soon 13 fortune-seeking dwarves have arrived on the hobbit's doorstep in search of a burglar, and before he can even grab his hat or an umbrella, Bilbo Baggins is swept out his door and into a dangerous adventure.

The dwarves' goal is to return to their ancestral home in the Lonely Mountains and reclaim a stolen fortune from the dragon Smaug. Along the way, they and their reluctant companion meet giant spiders, hostile elves, ravening wolves--and, most perilous of all, a subterranean creature named Gollum from whom Bilbo wins a magical ring in a riddling contest. It is from this life-or-death game in the dark that J.R.R. Tolkien's masterwork, The Lord of the Rings, would eventually spring. Though The Hobbit is lighter in tone than the trilogy that follows, it has, like Bilbo Baggins himself, unexpected iron at its core. Don't be fooled by its fairy-tale demeanor; this is very much a story for adults, though older children will enjoy it, too. By the time Bilbo returns to his comfortable hobbit-hole, he is a different person altogether, well primed for the bigger adventures to come--and so is the reader. --Alix Wilber

Bilbo Baggins, a respectable, well-to-do hobbit, lives comfortably in his hobbit-hole until the day the wandering wizard Gandalf chooses him to take part in an adventure from which he may never return.